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Have These Capitals Passed Their Peaks?

Dramatic title, eh?

Don’t worry, this isn’t another “window opening/closing/shattering” post, but rather a look at when hockey players peak and how the Capitals roster stacks up, relatively.

The latest issue of ESPN the Magazine – “The Age Issue” – pinpoints players’ primes by position (try saying that a few times fast). How? Thanks to help from the good folks at Hockey Prospectus and their stat, Goals Versus Threshold (GVT), which measures a player’s worth (taking into both account offense and defense) in comparison to a typical fringe NHL player. Essentially they endeavor to answer the question, “At what age are players at different positions at their best?”

With the obvious caveat that every player is unique, here’s a list of which Caps’ best days may yet be ahead and who may be beyond his “best by” date – who’s not yet at his peak, who’s past his peak, and who’s Pat Peake. (OK, not really on that last one.) First, the forwards, with their ages as of October 12, 2012 (Opening Night… stop laughing/crying and read on) and Hockey Prospectus’s peak age for forwards, after the jump.

Forwards Defensemen Goalies

Jason Chimera (33.4)

Mike Ribeiro (32.7)

Joel Ward (31.9)

Matt Hendricks (31.3)

Joey Crabb (29.5)

Brooks Laich (29.3)

Troy Brouwer (27.2)

Alex Ovechkin (27.1)

Jay Beagle (27.0)

Wojtek Wolski (26.6)

Nicklas Backstrom (24.9)

Mattias Sjogren (24.9)

Mathieu Perreault (24.8)

Peak Age For Forward: 23.5

Marcus Johansson (22.0)

Roman Hamrlik (38.5)

Tom Poti (35.6)

John Erskine (32.3)

Mike Green (27.0)

Jack Hillen (26.7)

Jeff Schultz (26.6)

Peak Age For Defenseman: 25.8

Karl Alzner (24.0)

John Carlson (22.8)

Dmitry Orlov (21.2)

Peak Age For Goalies: 24.8

Michal Neuvirth (24.6)

Braden Holtby (23.1)

It would seem as though the forwards are perhaps a bit long-in-the-tooth, that the core of the blueline is largely in good shape and that the goalies may be just about to come into their own. Does that mesh with your perception of the roster? Does it impact how you’d construct a team if you were at the helm?

Regardless, one thing is certain – the clock’s a-tickin’, and the longer this lockout drags on, the older every one of these players gets.

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